


Academic Career

by paupotter_4869



Series: The Most Important Thing. . . [7]
Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Chores, Jackson - Freeform, School, academic life, adjustments, domestic life, teenage tantrum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27972659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paupotter_4869/pseuds/paupotter_4869
Summary: Few days after settling in Jackson, Ellie and Joel need to talk about their chores around town. Ellie isn't too pleased, to say the least, with the chores she's been tasked with.
Relationships: Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us), Maria/Tommy (The Last of Us)
Series: The Most Important Thing. . . [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033674
Kudos: 17





	Academic Career

**Author's Note:**

> All credit to Naughty Dogs. I do not own anything.

_“No!_ Let me go! You fucking asshole! _Let me go!”_

“Ellie! Ellie, wake up! It’s just a nightmare!” 

She woke up in a jolt, a shriek frozen at the back of her throat, struggling against whomever was restraining her—which she now realized it was only Joel, who has no intentions of hurting or killing her. 

“It’s okay, baby girl. You’re safe.”

Panting and sweating, she saw she was safe and sound in her bedroom at their place in Jackson. She relaxed in Joel’s arms and he cradled her against his chest, saying over and over that it had just been a nightmare. 

It had been a whole week since they’d arrived at Jackson and her sleeping schedules had only gotten worse. She’d suffered from nightmares before, of course, especially regarding Riley, but the events of the past year, traveling cross-country with Joel, had only triggered her subconscious to unsuspecting and horrifying levels. Visions of Riley and Marlene, Infected attacks, asshole murderers like David, getting bitten by some new type of Infected and figuring out she wasn’t immune after all, or worse of it all. . . Joel not surviving the winter. 

“It was a nightmare. That’s all it was,” Joel kept trying to soothe her, because Ellie was still shivering a little. 

Annoyed at the tears in her eyes, Ellie picked herself up and pulled away, refusing to be nurtured like a goddamn baby. Joel, used at Ellie pulling away every morning, dropped his arms. She read in his eyes the same fear that hers showed, hoping the nightmares would seize already. 

“Sorry,” she muttered. 

“You’ve got nothing to apologize for, kiddo,” he promised, soft voice. He knew she didn’t fancy talking about her dreams and discussing her coping mechanisms to survive all she’d been through, so his tactic, just like every other day, was to get down to business. “Now, shower, change, and meet me for breakfast. We need to talk.”

A bit surprised at that last part, Ellie frowned, but Joel didn’t offer any answers as he squeezed her shoulder one last time, stood, and left the room. 

Ellie stared at the door Joel had closed behind him on his way out. She was still a bit shaken, but Joel being there made all the difference. The thing she’d really wanted to say, albeit couldn’t find the words, was ‘thank you’. He’d been there every morning to drag her out of those dreams and reassure her she was safe and sound. He stayed there with her for as long as she needed to calm down, and wouldn’t leave until he was sure she was fine—that is, by the time she usually started her bickering and teasing and her jokes. 

If it weren’t for him, she had no idea where she’d be right now. Statistically, she should probably be dead, she reckoned, leaving her bed and jumping into the shower. 

Instead, she now had a bedroom of her own and they lived relatively safely in a town she’d never seen the likes of it before. Without the military, without risks of there being Infected, everyone living together and working together like a well-oiled machine. Hot water, running electricity, plenty of food, no mandatory curfew. The people around and they seemed. . . Happy. She was not there yet, however, but sure hoped she would be, one day. 

Her hair still damp, she descended the stairs two steps at a time, but froze before reaching the ground floor. She could hear a conversation and laughter downstairs. Didn’t Joel say they needed to talk? Who exactly wanted to talk to her? 

Best way to find out and get it over with was to meet the guests. She landed in the kitchen and saw Maria and Tommy standing around the dining table, holding steaming cups of tea. 

“Morning, Ellie,” the man said. 

“Hope you don’t mind us dropping by for breakfast,” said Maria. At the very least, they were kind enough to skip the ‘how did you sleep’ question, because she didn’t know how to politely answer that one. 

“Hello,” she greeted, a bit tense. She saw a dish with toasts on the table and sat down, taking the smallest of bites. 

“We were just talking to Joel about how things work here in Jackson,” explained Maria, sitting by Ellie’s side and taking a toast herself. “You know, the chores and duties around the place.”

“And forbidding him from ever working in the canteen as a cook.” 

Ellie couldn’t find it in herself to laugh at Tommy’s joke, even though she agreed, Joel’s place was most definitely _not_ in the kitchen. Not only was Alicia a much better cook than Joel was, but his talents would also be so wasted there in the canteen. He was most suited for patrol duty, keeping the townsfolk safe as he protected her all the previous year. 

And Ellie knew she qualified for patrol duty as well. 

However, more than Joel’s chores, she was still worried about what _she_ had to do with any of it and why Tommy and Maria were there so early in the morning. She could sense a trap wherever there was one coming, and she knew they had a hidden agenda. 

It didn’t take long—they’d come to discuss _her_ duties and roles around here, after all. 

_“No!_ No fucking way!” she shrieked. 

“Ellie,” Joel tried to step in, tired voice—he knew in advance what her response would be like. 

“No, Joel, don’t say it! I won’t go to school! Put me anywhere else!”

“We have a way of doing things around here and one of those includes all kids attending school until—” 

“I don’t fucking care! I _did_ go to school--a military one, at that! I’m not going back!” 

“As you know, it’s different here. . .” 

_“So what?_ I know how to read and adding and subtracting. What else can they teach me in this school of yours?” 

“I think we’d feel more comfortable if we all stick to—” 

“Joel, in all honesty, I don’t give a shit if you’re comfortable or not. The only things I’d be interested in learning in that school are tools to survive out there, and I probably know more than the fucking teachers.” 

“Ellie, let’s calm down now. . .” 

But she didn’t listen to Joel and, instead, addressed Tommy and Maria. 

“Are they going to teach me how to shoot? How to sow an injury? How to hunt?”

“Not really the subjects we teach,” Maria replied. 

“Then it’s a hard pass, thank you very much,” declared Ellie. 

“Kiddo, let’s think about it,” Joel pleaded. “If you refuse to go to school, then it’s going to be homeschooling on my part. And neither one of us wants that.” 

“That’s right,” she confirmed Joel’s last words. “And if you try dragging me to school, I’d make the place a living hell for the teachers and students. I swear. Within the first hour, they’ll be begging you to take me out already.” 

Joel let out a groan and forced Ellie back to her chair. The four family members sat down at the table, a little bit awkwardly—this is not how they’d planned the conversation to unfold, for either one of them. Even Joel had hoped they could have talked reason into Ellie. 

Still, he’d promised he’d give it his best to convince her, and so, he tried again. 

“Listen, kiddo, this isn’t a military zone, but there are rules we need to follow,” he said softly. “We cannot do as we please. Everyone around town has chores and duties to fulfill every day—that is how the town and the people survive.” 

“Alright, then. I want to do my part, too. Assign me to patrol duty and we’ve got a deal,” Ellie suggested, looking straight at Maria. 

In spite of being completely serious with her suggestion, the three adults shrugged her off, chuckling. Even Joel, which was the thing that hurt worse than Tommy and Maria disbelieving she could handle the patrols. She had just gone too far. 

“Give me a chance to prove myself!” she yelled. 

“No,” Maria stated, simply and coldly. “We cannot accept you into patrol duty the same way you should be enrolled in school. There’s a place and a time for everything and, if you’re so interested, you’ll be able to apply for whatever duty you wish to, further down the line.” 

“In the meantime—” 

“You know what, I don’t want to hear it,” Ellie interjected Tommy, not giving a damn about manners any more. She stood, grabbing a few more toasts. “Save it. I’m not interested.” 

“Where the hell you going?” demanded Joel, as Ellie was grabbing enough food to hibernate. 

“To my room! Wake me up when I’m fifty and you consider it’s safe letting me out of the fucking house,” Ellie answered over her shoulder. 

Throwing a tantrum the likes of which none of the adults had seen in a long time, Ellie slammed her bedroom door with unnecessary force. They all knew she was just making a scene, trying to prove her point, but downstairs, Joel sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“You see now what I had to put up with this past year?” Joel asked, raising his arms as if daring his brother and sister-in-law to contradict his tale after what they just saw. 

“Well, she _does_ have a character,” Tommy whispered. 

The understatement of the decade made Joel chuckle. “That, she does. I wasn’t lying when I said she wouldn’t take it kindly.”

“She can take it however she wants. . .” 

“I’ll talk to her,” Joel promised before Maria said anything in the heat of the moment they’d all come to regret. “I’ll try to make her understand.” 

“Good,” Maria approved. “Thank you.” 

Their job done, Tommy and Maria bid farewell soon after, promising to meet Joel, and perhaps Ellie, for dinner at the canteen. 

Before facing Ellie again, Joel finished his breakfast, without a rush in the world, and washed the dishes. He still wasted some time in the living room, giving Ellie a chance to come downstairs of her own free will after the guests left, but he knew Ellie wouldn’t reconsider by herself. Giving up, he went upstairs, heavy steps, and stopped in front of Ellie’s bedroom. 

In truth, he had no idea what to say. Deep down, he agreed that school would be a waste of time for Ellie, lest they taught her survival skills useful in the Apocalypse—and she was right, she probably knew just as much about survival as anyone else in town. Still, he could also understand Maria’s need to have a system and schedules and chores to make everything work and keep some control around town. So, compromises had to be made. 

Joel realized at that moment something. Back in the day, he’d stood outside of Sarah’s bedroom door too, after a fight or when she was upset over something at school—hard to remember what trivial things worried her back then. He hadn’t been a father for two decades, and still, there he was, responsible for a 14-year-old, about to argue as if she were his daughter. 

He’d protected her and defended her so many times over the past year and he, no doubt, would continue to do so here in Jackson. Something told him his skills as a mediator would be required just as much. All of this was supposed to have been over twenty years ago, all the struggles, all the fights, all the worries. . . 

Not that he would change a damned thing, he reckoned, clearing his throat. 

“Ellie?” he asked. “Can we talk?”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it !


End file.
